


Starbase Seventeen.

by steeleye



Series: After The First Won. [7]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:35:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24158986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: After over a thousand years of being killed, enslaved or used as sexual playthings by demons; women in the here and now, tended to nuke first and vigorously interrogate the survivors later. But every now and again they take some time off from all this hectic thermonuclear action and take a little personal time.
Relationships: Buffybot & Xander Harris
Series: After The First Won. [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1556119





	1. Chapter 1

Starbase Seventeen.

By Steeleye.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** None.

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious UK-English (the original and best) which is different to US-English.

 **Timeline:** Part of ‘After The First Won’, series of stories.

 **Words:** Five chapters of 2000+ words.

 **Warnings:** Smoking can damage your health.

 **Summary:** A 'After The First Won’ story. After over a thousand years of being killed, enslaved or used as sexual playthings by demons; women in the here and now, tended to nuke first and vigorously interrogate the survivors later. But every now and again they take some time off from all this hectic thermonuclear action and take a little personal time.

0=0=0=0

**General Esmeralda Kennedy, Terran Alliance Army.**

The last few months had been something of a roller-coaster ride for Kennedy, not only had she brought the war on Novalba to a successful conclusion (or at least a conclusion that had allowed the Alliance to withdraw with its dignity still intact), she'd also discovered that Willow Rosenberg whom she'd believed to have died forty years previously (subjective time) was still alive and nearly thirty years younger than herself. It was all very confusing, it seemed that when Kennedy had been dragged forward in time, by what ever force was messing with every body's lives, she'd arrived first. Faith, Willow, Xander and Dawn had all arrived years later, which was odd because they'd all 'died' within a few years of each other in the past. There was also the mystery of what had happened to Buffy and Giles. Yes, there was Robo-Buffy, Willow's little science experiment, but as far as anyone knew Buffy had lived and died four hundred years or more in this future's past.

As Kennedy had told herself innumerable times in the last few weeks it was all very odd. The best theory that anyone had come up with, really the only theory, was that they were all here in the 'here and now' for a reason; and they'd all arrived at different times so they'd have the time to get into the positions they'd need to be to counter whatever menace the universe was holding in store for them. 

After leaving orbit around Novalba, the Terran Alliance Star Ship Reluctant had set course for Starbase Seventeen, the nearest Alliance outpost to that planet. Here they would receive their new orders. The Reluctant with Willow, Faith and Dawn aboard would probably be sent to fight the Shedu who'd recently launched a new offensive against the Terran Alliance. Kennedy was hoping she could go into retirement, after all she was nearly sixty now, but she doubted she'd be put on the inactive list, not with the Shedu attacking as they were. There was another problem that Kennedy would have to face soon, what was she to do with Xander? She'd sort of promised him that nothing 'bad' would happen to him, she needed to find a solution to the problem that was Xander Harris and find it soon and before the women from The Department of Family Planning came along and locked him away.

0=0=0=0

Arriving in the military section of Starbase Seventeen, Kennedy presented her ID to one of the two Marines standing guard at the entrance.

“General Kennedy to see General Fitzpatrick,” Kennedy announced as she handed over her card and the Marine eyed it suspiciously before placing the card into the card-reader on her belt. It appeared that even old and famous army generals didn't impress the Terran Alliance Marine Corps.

Almost satisfied that Kennedy was who she claimed to be, the Marine handed her ID back before asking her to look into the iris scanner mounted on the wall. Complying without complaint, Kennedy did as she was asked and wondered why security had been tightened up so much since her last visit about a year ago; then she'd been able to enter the military sector by merely exchanging salutes with the guards on duty. Satisfied that Kennedy was in fact _the_ famous General E Kennedy the Marine and her buddy snapped to a rigid attention and saluted.

“Welcome aboard General,” said the senior Marine.

Returning the Marine's salute, Kennedy asked the way to General Fitzpatrick's officer.

“General Fitzpatrick is sending a guide,” the Marine explained, “she'll be here any moment, General.”

Nodding her thanks, Kennedy stood to one side of the corridor. Looking around she noticed that the security of this sector didn't simply rely on two tough and heavily armed Marines, although the two Marines would be quite sufficient to stop all but the most determined intruders. Since she'd last visited a couple of remote weapons points had been added and no doubt there were new sensors and other pitfalls that she couldn't see even with her slayer enhanced eyesight; again she wondered why security had been beefed up. However, she didn't get time to wonder for long as a rather cute army corporal walked smartly up to her and saluted. Again Kennedy returned the salute before looking expectantly at the attractive young woman before her.

“General Fitzpatrick is waiting to see you, General,” said the corporal, “if you'll follow me?”

Following the NCO along the station's corridors, Kennedy again noted the increased security in the form of more Marine guards and extra sensor and remote weapons arrays; she also noted that the corporal's skirt was just a little shorter than regulations allowed, but she decided not to mention it as the view was quite pleasant from where she was walking. After several minutes of wandering along corridors during which time Kennedy found that she was now helplessly lost, they arrived at another guarded door.

“You can go straight in, General,” announced the corporal, “General Fitzpatrick is expecting you.”

Walking over to the door Kennedy found it opened at her approach, stepping into General Fitzpatrick's office, she found herself in a large but spartanly furnished compartment. Standing behind her desk General Fitzpatrick waited to greet her.

“General,” Kennedy saluted; the woman in front of her was a little past mandatory retirement age, but with the war against the Shedu still raging, Kennedy had found that a lot of senior officers weren't being retired like they would be in peace time. Fitzpatrick was about Kennedy's height and build, but unlike Kennedy her hair had gone completely grey, where as Kennedy's was only now turning slightly grey at the temples.

“Welcome to Starbase Seventeen, General,” Fitzpatrick said after returning Kennedy's salute, she then gestured to a couple of easy chairs and a low table situated under a large picture window through which they could see KJ6720-7, the gas giant around which SB17 orbited, “Can I get you anything?” Fitzpatrick asked as they both settled into the easy chairs, “We have Terran tea and coffee, or if you'd prefer something stronger?”

“Coffee will be fine, thank-you,” Kennedy replied as she watched the gas giant for just a moment.

“Spectacular view, eh?” Fitzpatrick said before looking over to the still open door, “Doris?”

“General?” the cute corporal reappeared at the door.

“Pot of coffee for two, then you can close the door.”

“On it, General,” the corporal, Doris, disappeared for a moment only to reappear seconds later this time carrying a tray with a pot of coffee, cups and saucers, sugar and a small jug of cream on it. Kennedy watched as the young woman bent to place the tray and decided that the NCO's skirt was way shorter than regulation length. 

“She's a treasure,” General Fitzpatrick observed as she poured coffee for herself and Kennedy, “I'm sure I'd not know what I'd do without her, I'm also sure she forges my signature and knows more about the running of this base than I do.”

“I know what you mean,” Kennedy agreed thinking about her own aide, Captain Amber Singh who was even now still aboard the Reluctant, the armoured cruiser she and her much reduced staff had arrived on a few hours earlier.

“I expect you're wondering about all the added security,” Fitzpatrick said before she sipped her coffee.

“It had crossed my mind,” Kennedy replied after sipping her own coffee, it was very good coffee, much, much better than the stuff you got out of a replicator.

“Replicants,” Fitzpatrick replied flatly, “since you alerted us to their existence we've been finding them everywhere...good work on that Novalban situation by the way,” the older general smiled, “that's one that could have turned nasty and used up more troops than we could spare.”

“I was only obeying my orders,” Kennedy smiled, “I was told to stop the insurgency on Novalba and leave the planet in a peaceful condition...”

“Which you did,” Fitzpatrick laughed, “but I don't think Earth expected you to do it in quite the way you did.”

“The only reason the insurgents were fighting was because we were there,” Kennedy explained, “so by removing the Alliance from the planet the fighting would stop. Plus the entire situation had been brought into being by the Tyrell Corporation and their plans to take over the planet. As it happened having Tyrell in the mix proved useful as it gave the national government and the insurgent forces a common foe.”

“Very clever,” Fitzpatrick smiled, “ever thought of going into politics?”

“I wouldn't lower myself,” Kennedy replied quietly.

“Well said,” Fitzpatrick nodded; the military disliked and didn't trust politicians.

“You were saying about the Replicants?” Kennedy prompted.

“Replicants...oh yes,” Fitzpatrick sat back in her chair and made herself comfortable, “Ever since you alerted us to what the Tyrell Corporation was doing or trying to do, we've found these damn replicants all over Earth and several of the outer planets. Luckily, although they're almost indistinguishable from real people, there's something about their eyes...”

“So if you scan their eyes...?” Kennedy interrupted.

“Exactly,” Fitzpatrick nodded, “I couldn't explain the science but apparently it's pretty easy to tell them from real people.”

“As long as you can get them to look into an iris scanner,” Kennedy joked.

“Well, yes that is a problem, but if they start shooting or throwing people out of windows its a fairly safe bet that they're a Replicant.”

“So what's being done with them?” Kennedy wanted to know.

“The ones that resist usually end up getting killed,” General Fitzpatrick explained, “the ones that don't are detained.”

“What's going to happen to them?”

“Well that's a problem,” admitted Fitzpatrick, “you see they are alive and almost...well...I can't think of a better way of putting it, but they are almost _real_ people, they can even have children.”

“So no one knows what to do with them?”

“Exactly,” Fitzpatrick nodded, “it would be immoral to kill them out of hand or keep them locked up forever...”

“That's never stopped a politician before,” Kennedy pointed out.

“I've know a few people in the service who wouldn't baulk at simply having them all shot...for the greater good of course.”

“Of course...”

One of the things that Kennedy didn't like about the women of the future she'd found herself in was that their fingers never strayed far from the nuclear trigger or in fact any other trigger. In a way she could understand it, after over a thousand years of being killed, enslaved or used as sexual playthings by demons; women tended to nuke first and vigorously interrogate the survivors later before they died of radiation poisoning. During her own time in the Terran army she'd shot her own fair share of 'demons' who might just have been sentient, alien, life forms. But as the saying went, 'It's the only way to be sure' and women in the here and now really did want to be _sure_ ; as the recruiting poster said, 'Make the Universe Safe for Your Daughters'.

“There's also been some talk of building...making more of these Replicants...to fight the Shedu.”

“There has?” Kennedy wasn't surprised, the idea of just being able to make soldiers instead of having to wait for them to be born, grow-up and be trained must be pretty appealing to some people.

“Nothing's certain of course,” Fitzpatrick explained, “no one's switched on the production lines yet, but...”

“We _are_ being hard pressed by the Shedu,” Kennedy pointed out, “but, what do we do with possibly millions of Replicant soldiers once we've beaten the Shedu, we can't just expect them to march happily into the gas chambers or switch themselves off.”

“Indeed,” Fitzpatrick agreed sadly, “I'm afraid that this is a problem we're going to have to leave for our daughters and granddaughters to deal with...you can't un-invent something or put the genie back into the bottle...”

“I'm reliably informed that you can...” Kennedy smiled, “...the genie I mean, as long as you know the right spells.”

“By 'reliably informed' you mean you got that from this Lt Commander Rosenberg, eh?” Fitzpatrick took a data crystal from her pocket and held it up for Kennedy to see, “I've read her report about the Second Coming of The First and I admit she makes a good argument, but...”

“But we haven't got the resources to do anything about stopping him...” Kennedy paused for a moment, “...is the First a he, she or it?”

“I always say 'he',” Fitzpatrick admitted, “after all, all males are dangerous and unreliable.

For just a moment, Kennedy wondered what the old general would say or do if she met Xander Harris who was at this very moment safely hidden away on board the Reluctant.

“However,” Fitzpatrick sighed, “we might be stretched to breaking point against the Shedu...”

“Is it really that bad?” Kennedy wanted to know.

“Look this isn't for general consumption but,” Fitzpatrick lowered her voice even if no one could hear her outside of her office, “unless we give this new Shedu offensive a bloody nose the Shedu will be able to raid the core worlds...maybe even capture a few of them.”

Although the Terran Alliance had a technical edge on the Shedu, the Shedu were rapidly catching up. The unfortunate fact was that the Shedu could out breed humans and as someone had once pointed out, quantity has a quality all of its own. The chances were that if the Shedu played the long game and it was increasingly obvious that they were, they would win and humanity would be just another foot note in the history of the galaxy. It could be that millions of Replicant soldiers might be the only thing that stood between destruction at the hands of the Shedu or the survival of the human race.

“As I was saying,” Fitzpatrick continued, “we simply can't ignore the threat that The First might pose so the High Command has authorised the deployment of a Task Force, a trip wire as you might put it. It's mission will be to slow down any incursion made by The First until heavier units become available.”

“And this task force will be...?”

“The Reluctant, the Mary Rose and any destroyers that might become available, plus supply ships and a troop transport with an Army Air Assault battalion, plus at least some combat support units.”

“And who's going to be the lucky woman in charge of this Task Force?”

“You will be, General Kennedy!”

“What!? But...!”

“Commander Adams of the Reluctant will be bumped up to full Captain and she'll be Commodore of the Star Force units, but you'll be in over all command...”

“Of an Armoured Cruiser and a Light Carrier plus a very short brigade?” 

“As I say, we'll give you what we can, we might be able to scrape-up enough troops for you to build full brigade, but...”

“But?” Kennedy couldn't believe this was happening to her, “What am I supposed to do if The First does turn up?”

“The best you can, General,” Fitzpatrick replied with a sigh, “the best you can.”

0=0=0=0

**Chief Petty Officer grade two, Buffy (Robo-cook) Summers, Terran Alliance Star Force and Mr Xander Harris.**

After looking into the shop window, Buffy turned to look up at Xander who was standing next to her with a worried expression on his face. The cause of his concern was that Buffy was looking at a wedding dress, however, he needn't have worried as marriage was, more or less, the furthest thing from Buffy's positronic brain. But that didn't stop her from messing with his mind with a tiny fraction of her own.

“You know what I think's totally odd?” Buffy asked.

“Erm, no,” Xander replied a little uncertainly, how was he supposed to know what a 'machine' thought was 'odd'?

“Why is it that even when everyone who gets married is female, one of them wears a dress and the other wears a suit or something.”

It was true one of the mannequins in the window was wearing a long, elegant, traditional, white, wedding dress, while the other wore a tailored, white suit.

“Tradition?” Xander guessed; Buffy had invited him out to take a walk around Starbase 17, he'd jumped at the chance of getting off the Reluctant for even a short time, but now he was beginning to wonder whether it was such a good idea.

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded, “whatever,” she gestured to a nearby café, “lets go have a coffee or something?”

“Yeah why not,” Xander agreed and let Buffy lead him to the café; the shopping mall on SB17 was quite extensive covering as it did the top three levels of the station.

Taking a couple of seats at a table near one of the huge picture windows that gave them a fantastic view of the gas giant around which SB17 orbited the couple watched the multi-coloured swirls of gas pass by beneath them. 

“How can I help you?” asked the waitress a moment later.

“Two coffees and do you have any cookies?” Buffy asked before Xander could say anything.

“Certainly, we have...” the waitress began, but Buffy stopped her before she could go into full cookie sales pitch mode.

“Could we have a plate of mixed cookies, please?” Buffy asked.

“Of course,” the waitress smiled thankful that she hadn't had to do the 'cookie speech' for the fiftieth time this shift.

“The coffee here is supposed to be really good even if it doesn't come from Earth,” Buffy explained.

“I still can't quite believe it,” Xander dragged his eyes away from the gas giant.

“What? About the coffee?” Buffy frowned.

“No,” Xander smiled, “about being in space...it sorta comes home to me when you say stuff about how the coffee doesn't come from Earth, y'know?”

“Not really,” Buffy replied, “I've always been aware of 'space' and I've never been to Earth.”

“You haven't?”

“Never,” Buffy shrugged, “I've been thinking about going...” a bright smile spread across her face, “....would you like to come with?”

“I don't know,” Xander shrugged, “you know the entire 'man' thing...it might not be such a good idea.”

“Your disguise appears to be holding up.”

It was true, since he'd been aboard the space station no one had 'made' him for a male and run away screaming or called station security.

“Yeah this charm thing Willow whipped up for me seems to be working,” Xander fiddled with the ring on his left hand.

As long as he wore the ring he'd appear to everyone as a rather tall, heavily built woman. No one would think it odd that he was tall and heavily built. They'd just assume that he/she came from some frontier world where women were all tall and heavily built. Of course to Buffy he simply looked like Xander because she was a highly advanced android, Willow's magic couldn't fool her electronic eyes and super computer, AI brain. This was why the Reluctant's AI, Tara, had had to convince the station's AI, a rather snooty AI called Daphne, not to notice that Xander wasn't a woman and was in fact a dangerous, wild, male. Being a military grade AI, Tara had been able to 'convince' Daphne not to notice anything odd about one of her visitors.

“I'm guessing Earth has better security than a space station and Tara won't be around to run interference for me.”

“True,” Buffy replied just as the waitress brought their coffee and cookies.

“Hey, this coffee isn't bad,” Xander said after sipping his drink.

“Yeah, not bad,” Buffy agreed just before she noticed the look on Xander's face, “does it make you uncomfortable that I'm a machine?”

“No...” Xander began, but then decided to be truthful, “...well, yes it does, kinda...and I didn't know you could drink stuff.”

“That isn't oil?” Buffy smirked, “No, look, I need to 'drink' and 'eat' to maintain my outward appearance, there,” she held out her hand, “hold my hand.”

A little reluctantly, Xander took hold of Buffy's hand.

“See?” Buffy held on to Xander's hand and only let go when she felt him start to pull his hand away, “That's real skin and flesh, warm and soft in all the right places, if you were to touch my boobs they'd feel just like any other human girl's boobs...with the right stimulus my nipples even go hard.”

“Erm, yeah right...” Xander looked away slightly embarrassed by Buffy's comment.

“And that's why I need fluids and bio-matter, not a lot but some,” Buffy explained, “of course if I've been damaged I'd need more to repair any cosmetic blemishes...and now I've made you feel uncomfortable again.”

“No...” Xander struggled for the right words, “...its not that so much...well, maybe it is, but it's hard to get my head around the fact that I'm sitting drinking coffee and eating cookies with one of my best friends who's actually a Terminator, like in the movies.”

“Wait...” Buffy's eyes took on a faraway look as she accessed those memory files that covered movies from the 'Time Before', “Oh, yeah I get it, I think the scientist who originally built me knew about 'Terminators' and added that knowledge to my programming...this was before Willow reprogrammed me to be a proper AI, I don't 'terminate' things...well,” Buffy frowned, “maybe not as much as I used to...I like to cook not kill.”

“See what I mean,” Xander sighed, “one minute you're the Buffy I thought I knew, the next you're talking about being real flesh and blood and how your boobs would feel natural if I touched them and being a cooking Terminator.”

“Sorry,” Buffy sighed as she expelled some excess heat from her processors.

“I mean you even breath,” Xander pointed out, “and laugh which makes me think you're the real Buffy not...”

“I am real,” Buffy replied forcefully, “but I'm so much better than that inferior flesh and blood Buffy, I've got knowledge up here,” she tapped the side of her head, “that flesh and blood Buffy couldn't even imagine, I'm stronger, faster, smarter, I'm...”

Buffy stopped herself before she suffered a cascade failure, taking in a deep breath she drew in cooling air before exhaling more hot air.

“I'm sorry,” Buffy shrugged, “but when people say I'm not real I sorta go all...all...” for a moment Buffy's central processor was lost for words, “...kinda kerfluie.”

“Kerfluie?” Xander smirked.

“Anyway, I'm not that Buffy,” Buffy began to explain.

“That's for sure,” Xander agreed.

“No, I'm sorta more what Willow remembers of that other Buffy and maybe a little of what she wished she'd been...” Buffy paused in thought for a nano-second, “...like I know more about you than that other Buffy ever did.”

“You do?” Xander sounded worried, he'd confided in Willow about his feelings for Buffy back in the day.

“I know you joined the Boy Scouts one summer when you were about eleven to get away from home and your terrible parents,” Buffy explained, “but you gave it up after two of your patrol were eaten by a vamp,” she paused to wait for another memory file to present itself, “There was a summer when Willow wouldn't talk to you or Jessie...” Buffy frowned, “...something about you and Jessie tying her up and...” her frown deepened, “...and...I think this file is corrupted, but she was really annoyed with you and she only started to talk to you again because she was really lonely...and... Hey, there's all this stuff about you ignoring her and then all the stuff about you an' her kissing and breaking Cordy's heart and Anya's and summoning Sweet and...” Buffy's eyes went wide, “...you thought about having sex with my sister when she was only fifteen! You're a terrible man Xander Harris!”

“No, no I'm not, well, not really,” Xander tried to work out whether he could get back to the Reluctant before he was pulled limb from limb by an angry Buffy-bot.

“No, no you're not,” Buffy shook her head, “you're just a guy and I can remember all the good stuff you did although it is slightly overshadowed by all the dumb and stupid things you did...y'know as a first date this isn't going a well as I'd hoped.”

“A first date!?” Xander gasped.

“Uh-huh,” Buffy nodded, “I had a girlfriend once and that first date went really well and we ended up in bed and gave each other loads of orgasms.”

“You get...” Xander turned slightly pink, “...you know...you arrive?”

“Well of course I do,” Buffy grinned, “existence wouldn't be much fun without orgasms, like would it?”

“I suppose not,” Xander agreed, “but I'm having trouble with the idea of you having a girlfriend.”

“Like I could hardly have a boyfriend,” Buffy replied with a wink, “and anyway it didn't last long she got transferred.”

“Sorry.”

“Don't be,” Buffy shrugged, “I don't think she was that interested in me as a sentient being, I think she got turned on by the idea of doing it with a machine...people are weird.”

“Okay, lets back-up there a minute,” Xander said, “lets talk about this being a first date...”

“Yeah that,” Buffy looked into Xander's eyes, “the human Buffy liked you, even loved you but not in a sexual way. Because Willow loved you I was programmed to like or love you too. Of course now I've really looked at my memory files concerning you I'm totally not so sure about that any-more...” she saw the worried look on Xander's face, “...joke, Xander, that was me joking.”

“You joke?” Xander sighed with relief, “gotta say, Buff, it needs some work.”

“Whatever, you've got to have realised that you can't go on like you are, that charm will only work for so long and one day you'll have to leave the Reluctant. On that day you'll stop being the fairly nice guy Xander Harris, you'll become a dangerous, wild animal that needs to either be shot or locked up in a fertility clinic where you can't do any harm.”

“But I'd never...”

“What you would or wouldn't do doesn't matter in the here and now its how you're perceived,” Buffy tried to explain, “You're only real option is to leave Alliance space and find somewhere else where you won't be hunted. I mean there might even be worlds out there with humans on them and the men haven't been touched by The First's mojo...I mean the males on Novalba were quite intelligent so it sorta holds out some hope.”

“Yeah I get all that,” Xander agreed, “but what has that got to do with this being a first date?”

“Well I sorta volunteered to look after you,” Buffy admitted, “and to do that effectively I thought it would be better if we were romantically involved, but I can see by the look of horror on your face that that's not going to work...”

“Buffy...” Xander's eyes grew wide as he looked passed where Buffy was sitting.

“What?”

“Just how many Buffy-bots are there?” Xander asked urgently.

“Huh?” Buffy said just before she was thrown bodily across the café.

0=0=0=0

**24R-3610.**

Picking herself up off of the floor of her flight deck, Ten started an immediate self-diagnostic, The Shedu cruiser had come out of FTL and had fired at Ten's scout ship as soon as the cruiser's systems had recovered from being in FTL space. Evading the cruiser's first volley of kinetic penetrators, Ten had flown her scout ship on a course that would allow her to engage her own FTL drives and escape the Shedu's fire.

Just as Ten was setting a course away from the area of space she was patrolling the Shedu captain fired a full spread of missiles. Ten's point defence shot down all but one of the incoming missiles, but it had only taken one missile to damage Ten's ship. The missile exploded catching Ten's ship right at the edge of its fireball. If that wasn't bad enough the EMP from the nuclear warhead fried a lot of ships systems and threw Ten's ship off course.

Sitting down in the pilots chair, Ten placed her hand on the interface that connected herself to the ship's systems. Long lists of damage appeared in front of her eyes. Fortunately the ship's integrity hadn't been compromised and the ship's repair systems were already dealing with the most serious damage. Switching from the ship's systems Ten studied the damage inflicted on herself; she found she'd received moderate damage to several areas of her dermal layer. These injuries would heal in a few hours. However the most serious damage was to her cranium, a piece of the pilot's chair had embedded itself in the back of her head.

Reaching behind her head she took the lump of metal in her hand and pulled it free. Looking at the piece of chair, Ten studied it for a moment as more lists of damage scrolled by in front of her eyes. Satisfied that her cognitive systems had not been compromised, Ten went back to helping the ship repair itself not realising that her own decision making sub-routines had in fact been damaged.

With the repairs to herself and her ship in hand, Ten turned to check on the ship's navigation systems, she needed to find out where she was. To her horror Ten found out that she wasn't back in Buflective space as she had hoped. The ship had been thrown off course by about eight-hundred-and-sixty-three-point-nine AUs and she was still in Alliance space. This she decided wasn't so bad, on the edge of her scanning range was an Alliance starbase. It would take her several hours to reach the base by which time she'd be almost completely repaired. Although Alliance and Buflective tech wasn't one-hundred-percent compatible, she could still use Alliance tech as spare parts for her ship.

Getting up and walking into the recreational area in the centre of her ship, Ten ingested some fluids and bio-matter, this would help speed the healing of her cosmetic appearance. Satisfied that all repairs were in hand and no longer required her attention, Ten went to her quarters, lay down on her bed and switched herself to 'Stand-by Mode'.

0=0=0=0

Ten woke up in plenty of time to dock with the starbase, her injuries were almost completely healed now and those that remained would garner her some sympathy from the station's human inhabitants. As an infiltration model she'd been designed to be short, cute and young looking. Although she'd been constructed over fifty standard years ago, she still had the outward appearance of a sixteen year old human girl. Her appearance made humans either want to help her or ignore her. Leaving the docking bay, Ten moved on to the repair shops where she acquired the parts she needed to complete the repairs to her ship.

After leaving the spares in her ship, Ten moved on to investigate the habitable areas of the ship. Part of her mission was to observe humans in their natural environment. The information she gathered would be added to the Buflective's knowledge of the human race so that the Infiltration models could pass as human more easily. Moving around the bases' shopping mall, Ten was attracted by a display of brightly coloured scarves on a rack outside a store. As she searched through the scarves, they were rather pretty and she was considering buying one for herself and her 'mother', Ten's eyes were attracted by movement in a nearby café.

Switching her attention from the scarves to the new target of interest, Ten was shocked to see an older version of herself sitting with a human male. This was strange for two reasons; normally human males spent their lives locked up in Fertility Clinics, a male sitting calmly drinking coffee and eating cookies would normally cause a panic. As far as Ten could see no one was reacting to the male. The android with the male appeared to be a combat model, these looked about five years older than Ten's apparent age and although it looked like a combat model it wasn't flashing its IFF at Ten. It was then that Ten's damaged systems began the tragic events that were soon to unfold.

Realising that something was wrong, Ten should have returned to her ship and made her way back to Buflective space where she could report on what she'd found. If necessary Central Command would dispatch more combat models to destroy or capture the rogue android. Instead, Ten marched across the concourse to where the imposter sat, picked her up and threw her at a handy bulkhead.

“That'll put marzipan in your pie-plate bingo!” Ten said before she turned to continue her attack.

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter 2

**Staff Sergeant Dawn Summers, Terran Alliance Marine Corps.**

Standing in the middle of the plaza on the lower level of Starbase Seventeen's commercial sector, Dawn looked up at the sign above the entrance to the bar. 'The Tangerine Starship' proclaimed the sigh in flashing neon lights and sure enough, every few seconds a holographic, tangerine starship of fanciful design would fly from one end of the sign to the other only to explode and send multicoloured Tinker-belle lights in all directions.

This had to be the place, she told herself. One of the Star Force CPOs on the Reluctant, who'd been to SB17 a couple of times, had told her that this was the place for her to go to get what she wanted. Straightening her shoulders and adjusting her uniform, Dawn walked towards the entrance. It struck her then, as it always did in similar situations, just how lonely her life was; yes she had her Marine buddies and there was Willow and Faith plus of course her robo-sister, but... But she didn't have someone special and as she grew older she felt the need for someone special increase. Sighing heavily, she pushed these depressing thoughts to the back of her mind, she was on 'shore leave' (just for a moment Dawn pondered on why they still called it shore leave when the closest ‘shore’ was light years away) she was here to have fun! 

Pushing through the doors, after the large woman doing security on the door had eyed her for a minute; taking in her uniform and rank badges she'd nodded to Dawn before standing back to let her pass. Once inside Dawn paused to look around. The Tangerine Starship was typical of a type of bar that could be found all across Alliance space. It was all red plush, and dark wood-like furniture, the music wasn't too loud and was also a little out of date, Dawn supposed that they played 'golden oldies' because that's what the customers wanted. She did in fact recognise the song being played right now as being popular back in her high school years and that was now over ten years ago.

Walking deeper into the bar, Dawn checked out the few other customers sitting at the tables under the subdued lighting. They were all like her, mid-to-upper rank enlisted personnel from the Marines, Star Force or the merchant service. It looked like she was the only Marine in the joint. After looking around, she chose a table in an alcove with a good view of the main door and the door that she guessed led out to the kitchen. Walking over to the table she sat down; she'd only been seated for a moment when a bored looking waitress came over to take her order. The girl was topless and Dawn watched her boobs bounce perkily as she walked over to her table.

Boobs didn't 'do' much for Dawn, she saw loads of boobs everyday, if she got excited at the mere sight of a pair of admittedly nicely shaped and probably natural breasts every time she saw some, she'd be in deep crap both professionally and mentally. Ordering a beer, Dawn sat back in her seat and scanned the bar. There were maybe five other customers, it was only mid afternoon so the place was quiet. There was a bar-woman (not topless) and two topless waitresses, there were also four 'comfort girls' (Dawn hated the term 'prostitute') sitting at a table chattering in a language that Dawn didn't understand or recognise. Three of the girls looked oriental while the forth girl was probably from Northern American or European stock judging by her hair and skin colour. Sure enough one of the oriental looking girls got up and walked over to Dawn's table.

“Hi soljer-girl you wanna buy Mizuki drink?” the girl sat down at Dawn's table; she looked just like her friends, long, shiny black hair, dark eyes and about six or eight inches shorter than Dawn, “Soljer-girls numbah one!”

“I'm a Marine,” Dawn replied flatly.

“Better!” the girl Mizuki recovered quickly from her mistake, “Marine-girl 'A' Numbah one!”

“Good recovery there,” Dawn smiled as she indicated for the waitress who'd served her to bring a drink for the comfort girl.

“Tammy, like Mizuki?” the girl asked using the nickname for all Marines, the waitress arrived with Mizuki's drink, “Tammy want jig-jig?”

Intercepting the drink before Mizuki could pick it up, Dawn touched the amber coloured liquid it contained to her lips.

“Cold tea?” Dawn gave both the waitress and comfort girl a hard look, “I hope I won't be paying for Terran Whisky.”

The waitress left without saying a word, probably to report back to the bar-woman and tell her not to try and rip-off the tough looking, streetwise, Marine NCO again.

“Hey, Tammy,” Mizuki said quietly, “if Mizuki drink whisky all day she soon get boo-coo sick,” the girl made a face, “no good make Tammy happy, Tammy want Mizuki to make her 'Happy Ending'?”

“Yeah, but I'd like to finish my beer first,” Dawn replied with a grin; the beer wasn't bad for replicated booze, “so how much are y'goin' to try and rip me off for your services?”

“Hey!” Mizuki cried out, “Mizuki no rip-off Tammy-girl, Tammy-girl 'A' numbah one, save the galaxy from Shedu-devils...”

“Yeah, okay,” Dawn sipped her beer, “enough of the sales pitch already, how much?”

“One-hundred creds,” Mizuki replied hard eyed as if she was daring Dawn to haggle.

“One-hundred creds!” Dawn laughed, the angry look Mizuki had given her had simply bounced off her own ego, she'd looked into the mouth of hell too many times to be intimidated by a cute comfort girl. “No way,” she made her counter offer, “sixty...”

“Who you think Mizuki is, Tammy-girl!?” it was Mizuki's turn to sound outraged, “You think Mizuki poxed up old whore? Tammy-girl numbah ten! But, Tammy-girls save the galaxy so I make you special offer...ninety creds...”

The banter went back and forth for a couple of minutes until Dawn and Mizuki agreed on seventy-five credits. Dawn still thought she was being ripped off, but she had a lot of money with nothing to spend it on, so she really didn't care that much.

“You pay now,” Mizuki sulked.

“You think I was like totally born yesterday?” Dawn laughed quietly, “If I pay you now, you'll vanish an' a couple of your friends'll try to roll me an' dump me in the waste disposal.”

“Boss she beat Mizuki coz Tammy-girl won't pay full price, you pay up front or I no go up your front! No happy ending for Tammy-girl...”

“Ain't that right,” Dawn muttered to herself quietly.

“What you say?” Mizuki demanded.

“Oh nothing,” Dawn sighed, “nothing important.”

Giving the girl the once over, Dawn saw no sign that she was being mistreated, no bruises or marks from recent beating, in fact Mizuki looked healthier than most girls in her profession looked, her boss probably looked after her girls. It was sensible really, pretty girls brought in more clients and as your client base was made up of senior enlisted types who'd not hesitate to call the cops if they thought something was wrong; it was enlightened self-interest to keep your employees healthy.

“Whatever...” Dawn drank the last of her beer and got up to go.

“NO!” Mizuki cried in alarm at the thought of seventy-five credits walking out the bar, “Mizuki, she messin' with Tammy-girl, you no need to to pay up front for happy ending.”

“That's better,” Dawn used the tone of voice she normally used on recruits that had finally done a simple job to her satisfaction, “you, got a room here or something?”

“Up stairs,” Mizuki admitted, “Tammy follow Mizuki...”

0=0=0=0

“So, how'd you end up here?” Dawn asked as she got dressed; it was fifty minutes later and Mizuki had got her to where she'd wanted to go, multiple orgasms no less.

“Mizuki got no mama or mama,” the girl lay back on the pillows of the bed and watched as Dawn put on her uniform “she orphan, had to earn for herself from early age.”

“Now early?” Dawn wanted to know as she searched under the bed for one of her boots.

“Mizuki, fifteen when she started giving happy endings to Tammy-girls.”

“How old are you know?” Dawn found her boot and started to put it on.

“Nineteen...”

“Are you happy doing what you do?” Dawn wanted to know.

“Sometimes,” Mizuki admitted with a shrug.

“Why don't you leave an' do something else?” Dawn wanted to know as she stood up and buckled on her belt and sidearm.

“What would Mizuki do?” the girl replied sadly, “Mizuki no got any eddy-kay-shon.”

“Join the Marines or something,” Dawn suggested, “look at me, I got no mama or mama I was an orphan too. Look at me now I'm a staff sergeant an' I'm going places.”

A couple of years ago, Dawn had done a few months in a recruiting office and she still tried to recruit people even now. Particularly young girls like Mizuki who were likely to come to a bad end before they were twenty-five. Lesbian sex was possibly the safest sex a woman could have; there was no chance of unwanted pregnancy, the risk from STDs was tiny, however in Mizuki’s line of business there was chance of being physically abused. The life Mizuki and girls like her led could also lead to drug and alcohol abuse and of course not all bosses were as enlightened as Mizuki's boss appeared to be.

“Tammy-girl go places an' get shot at by Shedu-devils,” Mizuki pointed out quietly.

“You're totally not wrong,” Dawn agreed with a chuckle, “but at least think about it, huh?”

“Mizuki think...” the girl grinned, “...I think Mizuki stay here...safer.”

“Whatever,” Dawn shrugged as she took out her debit card and slipped it into Mizuki's reader and paid her seventy-five creds, before asking, “How honest is your boss?”

“She honest,” Mizuki replied firmly; Dawn added another ten credits as a tip for Mizuki.

“See you around kid,” Dawn called as she headed for the door feeling very old.

Dawn had discovered that listening to the life stories of comfort girls was just way too depressing, but she still did it, she told herself that it might spark something in the girl to move on, you did what you could. Now she was standing out in the plaza again, it was slowly filling up with women who where looking for a good time or indeed a happy ending. It was just as Dawn was thinking of going up onto one of the upper levels to do some shopping for things she didn't need or maybe find herself a good restaurant that the alarms went off. Most places like SB17 had several different types of alarm; there were fire alarms, decompression alarms and security alarms. The alarm that was going off right now was a security alarm. Standing there as women ran around her towards the armoured bunkers that dotted the station, Dawn brought her comms unit to her mouth.

“Tara,” Dawn had called the Reluctant's AI, “what's going on?”

“Staff Summers,” the AI replied almost immediately; the AI knew exactly where Dawn was and was probably having the same conversation with several other members of the Reluctant's crew who was aboard the station, “do you have your sidearm with you?”

“Yeah,” Dawn replied as she touched the holstered pistol on her hip.

“Good,” the AI replied, “CPO Summers and Mister Harris are being attacked by some sort of machine...”

“Location?” Dawn started to make her way through the thinning crowds towards the lifts.

“Upper level, of the commercial sector,” Tara replied calmly.

Arriving at the elevator, Dawn slapped the call button and was gratified to see the doors slide open immediately.

“What sort of machine?” Dawn wanted to know as she hit the button for the upper level.

“I'm sorry but the lift is temporarily out of order due to a security alert,” the lift told Dawn.

“Tara can you override the elevator's security systems?”

“Wait...wait...lift security systems overridden,” Tara announced as the lift began to move, “to answer your previous question, your sister and Mister Harris appear to be being attacked by a Buffy-bot not of Alliance manufacture.”

“Crap!” Dawn drew her pistol and hoped that the slugs it was loaded with would damage the attacker, she also wondered about just how many robotic copies of Buffy there were wandering the universe; Dawn loved her sister but apart from the slayer thing that she had going for her, Buffy was nothing special, so why did people keep making robo-copies of her?

The lift seemed to crawl to the upper levels giving Dawn far too much time to think, one of the things she thought about was reinforcements just in case she couldn't deal with the threat by herself.

“Tara, get the QRF off their butts and onto the station,” Dawn ordered, “tell them to load up with armour piercing rounds and don't forget to bring a LAG!”

“Understood,” Tara replied as she was no doubt already directing the QRF to the seat of the action.

The QRF, Quick Reaction Force, were four of Reluctant's Marine force who got to sit around dressed in their armour for eight hours a day just in case Buffy-like robots went on the rampage. The door to the lift swished open as it arrived on the upper level. Stepping out of the lift, Dawn was hit by a high velocity station security officer who flew through the air to impact with Dawn and knock her off her feet.

Pushing the unconscious security office off her legs, Dawn looked up to see two Buffy's fighting as they tried to beat each other to scrap metal. For a moment Dawn couldn't tell one Buffy from another, but then she noticed that one Buffy looked significantly younger than the other and was wearing civilian type ship's coveralls. Raising her pistol, Dawn got ready to open fire.

0=0=0=0

Hitting the fake Buffy over the head with a table Ten wasn't really surprised when the table broke over her target's head but the target remained standing. This fake Buffy appeared to be almost a tough as she was, but Ten had noticed that she had a slight, micro second advantage in speed over the faux Buffy. Dodging away from the fake Buffy's counter attack, Ten's combat sub-routines were just trying to work up a plan that would use her speed advantage to full effect when a bullet from a slug thrower hit her in the right upper chest area.

The bullet went through her dermal layer and hit what on a human would be a rib before bouncing off. Her main processor told her there was nothing more than cosmetic damage but it also warned her that she needed to bring this combat routine to a successful conclusion. Although the risk was slight whoever had fired the shot might get lucky and seriously damage her.

0=0=0=0

“DAWN!” Buffy cried out as she became aware of her 'sister', “GET XANDER OUT OF HERE!”

Looking over to her right, Dawn saw the unconscious form of Xander lying on the deck. Moving towards him, Dawn was aware of her sister attacking the other robot. The two machines looked fairly evenly matched as they stood there exchanging blows. Her own bullet had hit the intruder in the chest but hadn't done any damaged that she could see. While these thoughts had been going through her mind she arrived where Xander lay. Checking for a pulse she found it was steady, he didn't appear to have any obvious injuries, so Dawn decided to get him out of the danger area. It was then she found that she'd forgotten just how heavy a dead weight like Xander really was, at her first attempt she'd moved her old friend about an inch!

0=0=0=0

By now Ten knew that there were heavily armed and armoured reinforcements on the way. They carried weapons that could damage her enough to cause a complete systems failure, the robotic equivalent of 'death'. She also realised that she wasn't going to defeat the fake Buffy by simply hitting her or pulling her apart, they were too evenly matched. More effective methods needed to be used. Throwing the fake Buffy at a bulkhead, Ten made herself some room for herself and also gave herself the few seconds needed to draw the Directed Energy Weapon from its holster on her right thigh. The DEW was a powerful weapon, so, she'd been reluctant to use it before as there was a good chance that a missed shot might go straight through the hull of the station. Not that hard vacuum would harm her but there were a lot of innocent civilians around who might be killed. Aiming the weapon at the fake Buffy, Ten pressed down on the firing stud, just as the weapon adjusted her aim.

0=0=0=0

Heaving on Xander's unconscious body, Dawn managed to move him four or five feet before looking up to see how the fight was going. What she saw was her sister-bot lying against a bulkhead while the intruder-bot drew and aimed a weird looking gun at her sister.

“NO!” Dawn cried as she let go of Xander's shoulders and allowed his head to thump down against the deck plating.

The intruder-bot lifted her weapon and suddenly there was a blindingly intense beam of light connecting Buffy to the intruder's weapon. Buffy had been in the process of regaining her feet when the beam hit. Half standing, half crouching, Buffy was transfixed on the beam like a bug with a pin through it. The beam burnt through Buffy's chest and came out of her back to scorch the bulkhead behind her.

Lifting her own weapon, Dawn emptied the magazine into the intruder. The robot staggered back a little at each impact, but she didn't go down. As the slide on Dawn's pistol locked back the intruder turned her weapon towards the now unarmed and helpless Marine.

0=0=0=0

The fake Buffy was now none functional there being a large, melted hole in her chest. Just as Ten was altering her aim to take out the fake's head, a dozen or so slugs impacted her torso forcing her back a couple of steps. Obviously her troubles hadn't finished with the systems failure of the fake Buffy, she now had to deal with the threat posed by the flesh and blood inhabitants of the station. Turning to aim at the new target, Ten felt numerous impacts from high velocity penetrators. Her damage control systems started to list serious damage to her skeleton. If this damage was allowed to continue there was a serious possibility that she would become none functional. Changing target to one of her attackers, Ten fired. The beam hit the target but did little damage other than scorch and melt some of the target's armoured suit.

Once again Ten was hit by a new volley of shots, almost being knocked off her feet, she turned and tried to make her way back to her ship. If she received very much more damage she'd become none functional. It was then that she was hit by a large calibre round that exploded inside her body. For a moment Ten was aware of massive amounts of damage to her systems and she realised that in a few seconds she'd cease to be; she didn't want to stop functioning she was only fifty-three standard years old and she still had a lot that she wanted to do and see. As her systems started to close down, she thought she saw the factory were she'd been built, she smiled as she recognised the Mother-Buffy that had looked after her after she'd first been activated. As her sensors closed down and her eyes saw only the red screen of none functionality, Ten knew there was now no chance of a re-boot, even if she could get to a trauma center in the next five minutes, no this was the 'big malfunction'.

“We function for The Buffy...” Ten said as her voice slowly wound down like a tape in an ancient audio cassette machine, “...and we cease to function for The Buffy...”

But nobody heard her.

0=0=0=0


	3. Chapter 3

**Lieutenant Commander Willow Rosenberg, Terran Alliance Star Force.**

Lost in her own thoughts, Willow stood between the two examination tables in her lab aboard the Reluctant. On one table lay the body of her own creation, the Buffy-bot, on the other lay the body of another robot which looked suspiciously like what Willow remembered a sixteen year old Buffy had looked like. For two machines there was an awful lot of blood.

Turning her eyes from the 'other Buffy', Willow looked down at the Buffy-bot or Robo-Buffy as she had become known. Willow had built, or to be more accurate, rebuilt her from the basic machine that Dr Morbius had designed and constructed on Altair IV. After killing Morbius and destroying her Alien army, Willow had brought the Buffy-bot, then little more than a sex-bot with some combat capabilities, back aboard the Reluctant.

Originally, Willow had wanted to rebuild the Buffy-bot in the image of the Buffy she'd had in her mind. Put simply, Willow had wanted her friend back. But like so many seemingly good ideas it didn't work out quite as she'd intended. The Robo-Buffy had quickly out-grown her programming and had become a sentient being, more importantly, at least for Willow, Robo-Buffy stopped being the Buffy she remembered. Now she lay on Willow's examination table with a large hole melted right through the middle of her body.

“Commander Rosenberg,” the newly promoted Captain Adams stepped towards the exam table, she was one of the three people in the compartment, “can you rebuild her?”

“No,” Willow sadly shook her head.

“But...” Captain Adams was just about to ask why not, when Willow had created Robo-Buffy to begin with; but Willow started to explain her answer before Adams had finished her question.

“Apart from the massive damage to her torso,” Willow explained, “the heat from the weapon used on her destroyed her central processor and wiped her memory files. There's nothing of Buffy left in there,” she gestured to Buffy's head, “nothing left to repair...”

“Looks like you're going to have to find another cook, Captain Adams,” General Kennedy said without thinking, she looked in horror at Willow, “I'm so sorry,” she apologised, “that was a terribly insensitive thing to say, please forgive me...” Kennedy quickly changed the subject, “...the weapon?”

“Some sort of directed energy weapon,” Willow picked up the gun from where it had been lying along side the other artefacts found on the body of the 'other Buffy', “At first glance it looks like a more advanced type of laser, like the ones the Moosrab use, but I don't think it is, I'll have to take it apart.”

“Is it something we could copy?” Kennedy asked.

“The actual gun yes,” Willow explained, “its not too different from our own or Moosrab tech, the problem would be the power pack...”

“Because?” Kennedy prompted.

“Like, one of our own power packs would maybe hold enough charge for one shot,” Willow sighed, “I'm guessing this weapon has more than one shot before it needs recharging.”

“Have you test fired it?” Captain Adams wanted to know.

“Yeah, I tried but it doesn't work,” Willow put the gun back on the table, “I think it was designed so it could only be fired by its owner.”

“And its owner?” Kennedy prompted.

“Very 'dead',” Willow announced, “although we might be able to salvage something from her central processor. Luckily for us our Marines didn't blow her head to pieces, they just blew it off.”

Looking down at the 'other Buffy', Willow realised how much it looked like a Terminator, or at least the exposed pieces of metal skeleton did; this would be the second time in her career that she'd been confronted by creatures out of the movies from her own time, she was almost sure by now that something really weird was going on with the universe.

“Yeah,” Captain Adams stepped forward to take a closer look at the other Buffy, “the Marines really went to town on it, look,” she pointed to several holes in the metal 'skeleton' of the machine, “those must be hits from armour piercing rounds.”

“Yeah you're right, Captain,” Willow nodded, “she...it...was also hit by three rounds from a Light Assault Gun...”

“Using?” General Kennedy asked.

“High Explosive Armour Piercing,” Willow replied, “they really messed up its internal workings and it was a LAG round that took off its head.”

“Nice to know that if we meet more of these things our weapons will be effective,” Kennedy pointed out.

“Yeah, I'll know more once I've taken it apart,” Willow explained, “I'll remove any bio-matter and send it to Dr Ostrow see if she can find anything interesting. At first glance it looks like normal medical flesh like I used on our Buffy and the medics use to rebuild people's wounds after they've had holes blown in them.”

“So nothing really weird or out of this world?” Kennedy wanted to know.

“So far,” Willow explained, “everything looks similar to how our Buffy was built, of course that might change once I've had a chance to look at it after the flesh has been removed.”

“So, what do you want to do with our Buffy?” Captain Adams asked.

“Well,” Willow sighed, “she's really nothing more than a collection of spare parts now...not even that really...but once I've finished examining her, just to make extra sure that there's nothing of her still alive in there, I'd like to give her a proper burial in space.”

“I'm sure that can be arranged,” Kennedy said looking at Captain Adams.

“Of course,” Adams nodded, “we'll do everything properly...full military honours...after all she was part of the ship's crew, she'll be greatly missed.”

The silence that fell over the three women was broken after a moment by Kennedy.

“Station security found her ship,” Kennedy gestured at the other Buffy, “its docked on the other side of the docking ring from us. General Fitzpatrick said that as it was one of our crew that was killed and as it was our Marines that destroyed the intruder the ship's our 'Prize',” she turned to look at Willow, “With Captain Adams' agreement I've sent Staff Summers and some of the Reluctant's Marines to clear it before our tech teams pull it apart.” 

“Then I suggest we all go up to the bridge where we can watch the fun,” Captain Adams started to head for the door.

“I'll be along in a couple of minutes, Captain,” Willow replied, “I've something to finish up here first.”

“Of course,” Adams agreed before turning to Kennedy, “after you General...”

Alone again with the bodies, Willow looked down at the collection of technology and magic that had once been Robo-Buffy. It had been her own, selfish desires to have her friend back that had coursed Buffy to be re-built; now another living, thinking creature was dead and it was all her fault. Of course it wasn't; Robo-Buffy had done everything she'd done because that was how she was; she'd always put herself between danger and her friends. But, no one would ever be able to tell Willow that.

0=0=0=0

“Corporal Bishop?” Dawn called over her power armour suit's comms system.

“Staff?” Corporal Bishop was new to the Marine detachment aboard the Reluctant and she was wondering why Staff Summers had chosen her and her section of comparative newbies to go on this mission with her.

“Scans show that the airlock opens onto a corridor that leads to a central area with several compartments leading off it,” Dawn explained, “Other than that we're blind, the ship's heavily shielded.”

Once again Dawn looked out of the window next to the airlock at the ship docked with the station's docking ring. Shifting the LAG she was carrying she studied the alien ship once more hoping against hope that her eyes weren't telling her what they were telling her. Being a realist, Dawn knew exactly what she was looking at...she was looking at an almost exact copy of the Millennium Falcon from the Star Wars films. After telling herself that it wasn't true, she'd eventually admitted to herself (and Willow) that what she was seeing was real. It had also been confirmed by Xander.

“Okay,” Dawn took a deep breath of recycled air and once again adjusted her grip on her LAG, “lets get this show on the road...”

Nodding to the space-suited Station Security officer, she waited for the station techs to open the outer airlock door. The door cycled through and opened, leading the way Dawn stepped into the lock followed by Corporal Bishop's section. As there was atmosphere in the tube connecting the alien ship to the station the inner door opened almost as soon as the outer door closed. Looking down the length of the tube, Dawn saw the outer door of the alien ship. Giving a hand signal, she watched as two of Bishop's Marines moved cautiously towards the airlock. Nothing shot at them so when they'd gone 'firm', Dawn led the rest of her Marines forward. Arriving at the airlock, she noted that it looked like a standard airlock door designed to marry up with the standard Alliance airlock connection tubes.

“Do you think we'll need the breaching charge, Staff?” Corporal Bishop asked; as soon as she'd stopped talking the door slid open with a smooth swish.

“That was way too easy,” Dawn announced as she pointed her LAG into the alien ship's airlock.

Normally a Marine section would carry two LAGs, but today every other Marine was equipped with the point-five inch weapon and each weapon was loaded with high explosive armour piercing rounds. If there were more robots that looked surprisingly like the terminators from the movies of the same name, Dawn wanted something that would blow them into little, bloody, pieces of scrap metal.

“Okay...follow me,” Dawn stepped into the airlock and once again the airlock functioned as it should.

“You ever heard that thing about the spider and the fly?” Dawn asked.

“Yeah,” Bishop nodded, “and I'm guessing we're the fly.”

“Got it in one Corporal Bishop...” Dawn turned to glance at her NCO, “...what's your first name Bishop?”

“Lillian...” Bishop replied.

“Lill? Lilly?” Dawn asked.

“I can live with Lilly,” Lillian agreed.

“Okay Lilly,” Dawn pointed her LAG down the corridor, she could just see the central area about thirty feet ahead of her, “I'll take two of your girls and check out the corridor, once we're firm you bring up the rest of the girls and we search the ship by two's okay?”

“Sounds simple enough Staff, but what happens if someone starts shooting at us?”

“We run like hell, lock the doors behind us and let 'Big Mama' blast her to scrap, no heroics, understand?”

“No heroics, Staff,” Lillian agreed, “got-cha.”

“Okay lets move it!”

0=0=0=0

“Are you getting all this?” Dawn called the Reluctant's bridge.

A feed was going from the helmet-cams and comms units of the Marines to the bridge of the Reluctant, at least that was what was supposed to be happening. Unfortunately the alien ship was so heavy shielded that no signal had been getting through, so, the station techs had to set up a relay station in the alien ship's air lock which was being left open.

“Everything looks good from where we are, Staff,” General Kennedy answered Dawn's question, “show us around would you?”

“Sure,” Dawn stood and turned giving everyone on the Reluctant's bridge a three-sixty view of the compartment, “this is the central area of the ship, it looks like its set up as a lounge or something, there's entertainment units and even a kitchenette!”

“Probably so it'd all look normal if she was boarded,” Willow suggested.

“Yeah that's what I thought too,” Dawn said as she walked over to a door and opened it, “this must be the Buffinator's personnel stateroom...”

“The Buffinator, Staff?” Captain Adams asked with a chuckle.

“Well, Captain, we can't keep calling her 'other Buffy',” Dawn explained.

“But, Buffinator?”

“Erm, Staff Summers,” Willow interrupted before Dawn had to explain how the 'other Buffy' looked like a machine from a twentieth century sci-fi film, “can you show us the bridge, please?”

“Roger,” Dawn replied as she crossed the lounge area and walked down a short corridor to the ship's small bridge; once again Dawn couldn't help but be reminded of the Millennium Falcon, however once she stepped onto the bridge any similarity between that sci-fi ship and reality vanished.

“Is that it?” Captain Adams asked as she stared in disbelief at what she was seeing.

“That's everything,” Dawn confirmed.

The bridge was bare of all instrumentation, it contained only a flight seat for the pilot.

“There is this,” Dawn brought a pick-up point on the arm of the seat into focus, “I think our Buffinator simply sits in the chair and links in with the ship's systems to fly it.”

“You're probably right,” Willow agreed, “anything else interesting.” 

“We found something that I think was the ship's AI but its just so much plastic slag now, same for the armoury,” Dawn walked slowly back into the lounge area, “There's the remains of a few of those ray-guns but they're all melted...funny the projectile weapons and ammo are fine and all look like copies of Alliance tech.”

“The engines and star drives, navigation systems?” asked the Reluctant's engineering officer, Sub-Lieutenant, Holly McBride.

“They're a sealed unit, Sub,” Dawn called back, “and I'm guessing they're just so much slag now too. Everything remotely interesting appears to have been destroyed. I'm only guessing you understand, but I think the ship's AI 'spaced' herself and the important parts of the ship as soon as the Buffinator stopped functioning.”

“You're probably right Staff,” General Kennedy replied, “in your opinion is there any threat to our techs if you withdraw now?”

“I'd feel happier keeping a couple of my girls on guard detail, General,” Dawn replied.

“Make it so,” Kennedy acknowledged, “come back to the Reluctant, set up a rota for your guards then come to the Captain's conference room, I need to discuss things with all department heads.”

0=0=0=0

**Willow's Lab two days later.**

The first thing Kennedy noticed when she walked into Willow's lab was that the 'Buffinator', as the android had become known, had been stripped of its fleshy outer layer and was now partially disassembled. The second thing she noticed was her own feelings of relief that her relationship with Willow, or more correctly, Lt Commander Rosenberg, was over. She'd had to admit that trying to continue there relationship after a forty year break had been foolish, stupid even. Then there was the age difference, she was nearly sixty now while Willow was in her early thirties, it just wouldn't have worked out.

“You wanted to see me Commander?” Kennedy asked, in the circumstances it was best to keep things on a professional level.

“Erm...yeah...General,” Willow looked slightly hurt for a moment that Kennedy hadn't used her given name, but...well, she told herself they'd split up now, but they still had to work together, so...

“Commander?” Kennedy raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Right...!” Willow took a deep breath, “...Tara and myself have had time to do a preliminary study of the 'Buffinator' and I thought I'd better inform you of our findings before I released them to the universe in general.”

“Why?” Kennedy moved closer to the table where the Buffinator lay.

“There's one or two pieces of information that might need to be classified,” Willow pointed out.

“Oh feck...” Kennedy sighed heavily, “...okay, what have you discovered.”

“Okay, I'll start with the easy stuff,” Willow picked up a pad and glanced at its screen, “right, construction...basically the Buffinator is very similar in construction to our own Buffy-bot. I mean there must be only so many ways you can build a human looking android so I wasn't really surprised. Materials are almost exactly the same, the Buffinator has a few elements that I can't identify just now but nothing really weird.”

“No 'impossibelium' then?” Kennedy asked with a slight grin.

“No Ma'am,” Willow smiled back, “no 'impossibelium'.”

“So what then?” Kennedy always knew when Willow was drawing things out because she was uncertain of her facts.

“Its her AI,” Willow explained without explaining.

“Go on,” Kennedy encouraged.

“Well, you know I said that it was more advanced than anything we could put inside a human sized body,” Willow explained; Alliance AI's tended to be so big that it was only worth while putting them in starships and other large machines.

“Uh-huh,” Kennedy nodded all the while wishing Willow would get to her point.

“Well this is _waaaay_ more advanced,” Willow pointed out breathlessly, “the Buffinator has an AI to rival Tara, but the Buffinator's AI is contained on this one chip,” Willow held up a dark grey 'chip' about three inches long by an inch wide and maybe a quarter of an inch thick, “Tara's AI has to be put in a climate controlled, sterile room...”

“I'm jealous,” Tara informed the two humans, “Okay its fun being a starship and all, I certainly get to see a lot of the galaxy, but it would be nice to be able to sit and have a cup of coffee every once in a while.”

“I apologies for humanity's lack of progress in miniaturising AI's,” Kennedy told the AI dryly.

“Apology accepted, General,” Tara replied with just a hint of a smile in her voice.

“So...” Kennedy pondered a troubling thought, “...if this Buffinator was at least as good as Tara why did she attack our Buffy and Mr Harris?”

“Under the circumstances it would not have been something I would have done,” Tara pointed out, “I suspect that the Buffinator recognised the Buffy-bot for what she was and...”

“Attacked?” Kennedy asked.

“So it would seem,” Tara agreed, “in a similar position I would have reported back to my control.”

“That's assuming that the Buffinator wasn't a one-off like our Buffy-bot and had a control,” Kennedy pointed out.

“The Buffinator isn't a one-off,” Willow announced quietly.

“Not a one off?” Kennedy's tone was apprehensive, the last thing the Alliance needed just now was highly advanced androids wandering through Alliance space smashing the place up.

“Erm no,” Willow replied even more quietly.

“Don't keep me in suspense, Commander,” there was a hard edge to Kennedy's voice.

“While Tara and I were examining the Buffinator’s systems,” Willow began, “we were able to download some information from her memory files...”

“Memory files?” Kennedy replied with a sinking heart, the look on Willow's face told her what had been found was about as far away from puppies, kittens, flowers and boxes of chocolates as you could get.

“Erm, yeah,” Willow picked up her pad again and touched the screen with her finger, “If you'd like to watch the screen,” a view screen lowered itself into position from the ceiling, “the images we recovered are two dimensional so we needed to use this old fashioned screen...we had to dig it out of one of the store rooms...” Willow noticed the impatient look on Kennedy's face, “...yeah, right...the way the Buffinator stored memory was odd...”

“Odd?” Kennedy kept a firm grip on her temper, it was no use rushing Willow however frustrating her not rushing her was.

“What Commander Rosenberg is trying to say,” Tara spoke up, “is that the Buffinator's memories weren't stored as a linier time-line, they were stored by category and by importance, at least so it would seem. I took us a while to realise this.”

“Thanks, Tara,” Willow said as she touched the screen of her pad before gesturing to the viewscreen hanging from the ceiling, “Watch...”

Turning to look at the screen, Kennedy watched as her heart turned to ice.

“My goddess there's hundreds of them!” she gasped.

“I estimate millions,” Tara explained, “based on the...”

“And they're _all_ Buffy's?” Kennedy whispered her mind filling with dread.

“Apart from differences in apparent age, they all appear to be based on the human female know as Buffy Summers,” Tara explained.

“We're guessing that the Buffinators are grouped by age...” Willow explained, “...the Buffinator our Marines destroyed looked about sixteen, but our tests seem to show that she was built at least fifty years ago.”

Kennedy watched the scenes up on the screen, she supposed they were episodes from the Buffinator's life; she saw other 'young' Buffy's at what could only be described as a school being taught by older looking Buffy's.

“We assume that the Buffinators have a way of telling one Buffinator from another, an IFF perhaps,” Tara spoke into the silence that had fallen across the room, “The Buffinator we have appears to be emotionally attached to an older Buffy who we have code-named 'Joyce', it's all very strange...”

“Strange?” Kennedy tore her eyes from the screen and glanced at Willow.

“Yeah,” Willow nodded, “you'd think that these Buffinators would sorta come out of factories...which they kinda do, but...”

“But?” Kennedy felt like she'd been asking a lot of monosyllabic questions ever since she'd arrived in the lab.

“But, its like they've tried to make their lives as human-like as they can.”

“All the better to infiltrate human society,” Kennedy replied darkly.

This was indeed something that the Alliance didn't need right now. The Shedu menace was stretching the Alliance's resources to the limit. Then there were the Replicants hiding in society and no one knew what they'd been programmed to do. Now there were possibly hostile Buffy-form androids to contend with, Kennedy didn't even consider the threat posed by run of the mill demons and aliens.

“You were right to show me this before releasing it on the Stella-net, Willow,” Kennedy turned to face Willow, “Keep everything under wraps until I can talk to Earth...not even Captain Adams must know about this...yet.”

“Faith? Dawn?” Willow asked miserably, she hated keeping secrets.

“Even them,” Kennedy nodded, “at least for now...and Tara...”

“General?”

“No blabbing to any of your AI friends about this, okay?” Kennedy ordered.

“The thought had never entered my central processor, General,” the AI replied indignantly.

“Good,” Kennedy sighed, “now what the feck are we supposed to do now?”

“As usual,” Willow shrugged, “the best we can...”

The End.


End file.
